On the pleasure of reading private notebooks - Diaries (“journals”) and notebooks are the best, I love them as well. // “I think this is because our genuine thoughts (and interests) are more detailed and alive than the simulations we have of what we should say (or be interested in). When we think no one listens, we relax into the genuine. I’ve been told, repeatedly, that I hide my most interesting thoughts in the footnotes.” // “This is, I think, at the root of why I like reading private notes so much. There are so few places where we get to be close to other people and see the messy humanity they carry behind the identities they have polished for society life.” // There’s a certain kind of “comfort in knowing you’re not the only one” therapy in that.